I keep them for CDs but throw them out for books and the occasional time they come with a DVD or whatever.
When most imported VK was from bootleggers, having a pic of the obi with the release was one way you could prove it’s authenticity to potential buyers. Now I just think keeping them is mostly out of habit lol

- Chipotle is trash
- The reason Trump is president is almost solely because Clinton rigged the Democratic primary and forced herself as a Presidential candidate despite the projections that she would lose against Trump. Yet Dems have learned nothing from this and continue to blame Russia, Sanders, and whoever else they can so they’ll probably lose again in 2020 to the detriment of the rest of the world
- The Last Jedi is one of if not the best Star Wars films and most of the hate it gets is because people are too dumb to understand it and don’t get complex literary themes nor read any books outside the YA genre on a regular basis, if they even read at all
- Instagram eyebrows are ugly af
- Pop music needs to stop trying to sell how cool it is to pop pills, get drunk, or fuck anything that moves
- Recently there’s this trend that every series or every fan work of any series need to depict ideal relationships or it’s abusive, have xx representation for every kind of person under the sun, only allow white men to die or it’s automatically racist or sexist, and god forbid anyone make any nsfw content of it that isn’t the most boring sex you’ve ever seen/read or the keyboard warriors will come after it/them
- On that note most SJWs are fake wokes who think policing, dragging, or canceling other people with good intentions online is more productive than donating or volunteering to assist the issues or causes they’re supposedly fighting for (Hint: it’s not)

Hard to say but when I was a university student and lived there rent/utility free I averaged 5-8 lives a month (including do-minor shows and maybe an instore ), maybe an ensei or two if the live count that month was low, on about 5 man a month. This included maybe buying a few new releases and a couple of tour goods (tho often I bought nothing) that month, and live tickets were about half of what they cost now. I mostly ate at Saizeriya lol. When I enseied I didn’t stay at a hotel (just night bus to night bus) or stayed at an Internet cafe. Needless to say it wasn’t glamorous and I didn’t have a big social life outside of VK.
So whatever rent (majorly varies, a lot of people don’t actually live in Tokyo but in Saitama, Kanagawa, or Chiba and commute in to reduce rent costs since companies will usually pay the train fare) + utilities + taxes/health/pension + food and then at least 5 man on top of that for VK stuff.

Even then you need to be in relative commuting distance to Tokyo or Osaka etc to do 3-6 a month and also relatively young. I can’t imagine taking a night bus from Hiroshima to Tokyo (like a 12 hour ride one way at least) and back every weekend. Forget weekday lives or enseing a full tour.
Also good luck if you’re not on the main island or an hour or two out from a big city with decent bus, plane, or train/shink service.
That said sometimes the teaching salaries in Tokyo (with employment that isn’t JET) are so low people can barely make ends meet let alone afford lives without having to line up multiple evening/night gigs.
I think I only managed 1-2 lives a month when I first moved here for work and worked for Int*rac even tho I was/still am only 1-2 hrs out of Tokyo bc there wasn’t much yen to go around & it was rare the live would finish early enough in order for me to make last train.

JET may put you waaaaay out in the boonies so you can’t do lives since JET costs more money for Boards of Education to contract and your experience is still up to how well you get on with your school, but yeah bc it is run thru the government you will be a proper full time worker with subsidized health insurance/pension benefits and the pay is better.
I agree if you don’t plan on making Japan a home for more than a year or two do study abroad. Working society in Japan is really a bummer in most job sectors (even outside of teaching) bc of the huge wage gap for women, sexism, and forced overtime.

While that is really unfortunate, I feel like this person didn’t really have a good grasp on how things “work” here. Which is not to blame her, but just point out some things to keep in mind.
Lying to the BOE or customers about experience is pretty normal for any dispatch company or eikaiwa. I mean, honestly telling your clients/customers you’re taking their money for what essentially is on the job training for a new ALT or instructor through their lessons wouldn’t really set well with anyone. (Would you want to pay a hefty sum of money to be taught by a total newb? Probably not.)
Also, when you work for a dispatch company you aren’t actually a proper employee. You’re hired as a subcontractor for the dispatch company, which is contracted by the school to fill xx amount of days work per year.
Basically it means you legally can’t accept directives etc from the school - all of that and other communication must all come from the dispatch company. This is why Int*rac was upset she went to the school directly with her concerns. Also I’m sure the Aya chick acted out because the whole debacle made her lose face and/or the company would have rather her quit (accomplished through bullying, etc.) than pay a severance package by firing her if the company or the school had deemed her “problematic” for making waves. (Which seems likely from what she described.)
The reason dispatch companies hire ALTs as subcontractors is so the company can get out of giving paid sick leave, paying part of your insurance, contract bonuses, etc. The government is aware of this but they usually turn a blind eye unless a major scandal breaks out or it becomes a labor union case. And, of course, one reason they mostly hire new university graduates with little experience in Japan is so that they’re unlikely to be aware of how badly they’re getting ripped off.
So what I mean is that while Int*rac does suck and the salaries, training, and support they offer are abysmal, they aren’t any better or worse than your average dispatch/eikaiwa company here. I’ve worked for them before and at least they don’t work you without a visa and they pay on time. Whether you have a good experience with them or not depends highly on the branch (area in Japan) you get employed under, your attitude, and your school(s).
Additionally getting “groped” is pretty normal, especially by younger children. (It’s not uncommon for random strangers to touch my hair or old ladies to have a go at my boobs, too.) In some ways Japanese will respect you more than they do other Japanese, in other ways less, especially where foreigner exoticism is concerned. If it happens at school my advice is to stop the lesson and address it then and there with the homeroom teacher in the room. It becomes harder to “prove” and more of a hassle nobody wants to take on later after the fact if you wait and get more people involved.
If anyone is thinking about coming over here make sure to RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH, be really flexible, and be able to pick and choose your battles. SJW types tend to get fed up really fast because Japan/Asia doesn’t operate on Western values nor will it bend to them. Also working conditions can be crappy, the pay not great unless you hustle multiple gigs, and it can be difficult to make close friends or find a decent s/o (esp if you’re a woman who doesn’t fits “normal” beauty/girlfriend material standards here).
I’m not speaking out of bitterness or anything btw. I feel like I’ve done pretty well for myself despite all that (not cutesy and petite, married to a j-dude, have a lot of close friends, speak Japanese fluently, able to find work outside of teaching) but it definitely doesn’t seem to be the norm, especially if you’re only staying here a couple of years before moving on to something else.

Imho I’m not very good at comforting people either, but I try. I think part of this disconnect stems from the fact that I don’t go to people for comfort beyond wanting to cuddle with the H, since I’m well aware going to other people won’t actually solve the problem.
And that’s the thing... you usually can’t fix something for someone. You can be there and hold them why they cry and give them a safe space to vent, but they shouldn’t really have expectations beyond that, nor is it reasonable for them to expect you to drop everything to help them every time.
I had this one friend who kept coming to me for advice every other day after making one bad choice in her life after another and that shit was exhausting. It got to the point where I was dreading her messages because I had no desire to waste what little free time I had each day on her clingy need for attention or validation for the dumb shit she was putting herself through. I could understand if she was going through a bad patch in life atm but this was just her dating a serial cheater and getting mad about it, drama over her dating a married man before that, family drama bc she’s unmotivated to do anything with her life, etc. She needed counseling or therapy, not me.
While I do think there is some merit to trying to comfort a friend in the way they need (which may not be the same way you would need), it’s difficult for them to expect you to figure out that need, and daunting or possibly toxic if they expect it often.
Especially when you’re working 8-12 hours a day, have a s/o and/or kids and pets, or have a healthy social life, imho it’s rude of “friends” to constantly steal your small amount of personal time each day over problems they don’t really need to involve you in.

I feel like every overseas obangya over 30 either read it or wrote it! I also remember when every group had fans here in Japan drawing and publishing doujin for established band ships. You can still find a number of these relics at Mandarake.
I feel pretty squick about shipping real people now but I think VK is kinda in that grey zone where you’re shipping the personas they pretend to be.

- When I first moved to Japan, I missed a live because I mixed up 町田 (Machida) where the live was with 田町 (Tamachi). I wasn't gonna make the live in time so I said fuck it, but then I felt kinda bad because I had reserved tix with the band. (Back when you could still reserve tickets with the band off their website.)
- I can't stand much of Dir en grey's music after Macabre. I couldn't care less that they dropped the visual look, just so much of their stuff after sounds like noise. I also know there are a lot of Japanese VK fans that feel the same way, though for years some of them were in denial and kept attending shows bc they had the hots for the members.
- I think VK started to die with the osare kei craze and I can't stand most current "popular" VK bands. It's not that I think new VK has more shit than old VK, just that shit bands can sell better than they could before now that SNS/cheki/multiple CD types with different bonuses/etc. are more common. There's still good music coming out, it's just a lot harder to find. Before the good music was more “mainstream”.
- One of the best lives I ever went to was Gargoyle playing some songs here and there in between random MCing, as they sat on stage chugging cans of beer with the audience. I'd never been to a Gargoyle show before and I don't even like beer, but honestly I wish this was a thing all bands did.

For pretty small bands, especially at taiban events (where multiple bands perform), merch may be sold after the performance at a little merch table inside the venue, but most of the time the merch goes on sale a couple of hours before doors open. For bands playing large venues, merch may even go on sale in the morning or many hours before the venue opens. If merch goes on sale before the show, whether or not merch will be sold following the concert is up to each band. (It often is, but popular items might already be sold out.)
Usually bands will tweet or update their HP with merch info before the event (some bands might cut it really close until a day or two before the show though, which can be annoying from a logistical perspective, especially if you're ensei-ing).
P.S. Unless noted in the merch info, assume credit cards aren't accepted and have your cash ready before you get to the venue.